With that in view, I was particularly hit hard this morning when I read that Leroi Moore, the saxophonist for the band, died yesterday at the age of 46 due to complications that arose from an ATV accident he had in June.

Please join me in praying for his family and for the band, that God would use this situation to open their eyes to the hope that is found in Christ.

I found it…hope-giving (?) that the band opened their concert last night with a song called Bartender:

If I go
Before I’m old
Oh, brother of mine
Please don’t forget me if I go

I’m on bended knees
Oh, Bartender, please
Bartender, please…

Do the unborn not also count among ‘the least of these’? Yet Obama contends that if one of his daughters ‘makes a mistake’ (ie, gets pregnant), she should not be ‘punished’ with a baby. So much for the least of these.

Then it dawned on me that I am every bit as much a hypocrite as Barack Obama is. Haven’t I also quoted, memorized, preached on, passages of Scripture which I fail to live out consistently in my daily life? Don’t I preach that God gives sleep to His children, yet grumble when Halle isn’t sleeping well?

I cannot say whether Barack Obama is really in Christ or not. But I am so grateful God has counted righteous the hypocritical writer of this blog post, not because of the consistency of my life, but because of the perfect obedience of Jesus.

CNN has posted the full footage from the ‘civil forum’ held the other night at Saddleback Church. I have watched the first part of Obama’s interview and found it worth the time investment to watch the rest.

As you know, Mark Driscoll has gotten himself into some trouble over the years because of his tongue.  I am currently reading one of his books and several times have asked myself, ‘Why does he say things like that?’

In view of that, I am particularly interested to hear him talk on the issue of: Christ, Controversy and Cutting Words at this year’s Desiring God National Conference.

DG has posted this video clip of an interview with Mark, to whet our appetites for the conference.  Watching it certainly peaked my interest to hear Driscoll speak more on this issue.

Larry

In this short post, Kirk Wellum challenges us to consider whether we in America should look at our own twisted priorities before condemning China for its twisted priorities.

1 Samuel 3 was one chapter in my reading today. Verses 11-14 especially stood out. They read,

“Then the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.’”

I wrote a few paragraphs on this and posted them on Joe’s Notes this morning, but just take notice of the responsibility Eli had to lead his house. This should serve as a sobering reminder to every husband and father out there. The Lord has entrusted to us great influence and thus, great responsibility. Our influence is so great that every weakness in our home reflects a weakness of our own. And our responsibility is so great that any issues we find in our home, we are responsible to adequately address.

Humbled again by this great reality….
Joe

It’s been too long I know.  At least last week I had an excuse (no Internet).  Of course, as I said to you yesterday, it’s been weeks since I checked any blog.  And you know that is quite rare for me.  I am sure that will change after I get settled in in Turkey (next week, Lord willing).  I usually blog better overseas, for the pace is usually much slower.  

So anyway, I was at the DMV inspection station yesterday.  As you might expect, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it.  Particularly because I had to get my Jeep re-inspected b/c of a brake light issue.  And, in general, I don’t know many people (or maybe anyone) who actually enjoys doing anything with the DMV. Whatever you have to do - get a license, tags, inspection, etc. - usually falls into the mundane, necessary things of life that no one looks forward to.  

But as I was there, I realized how thankful I should be (and now am) for a thing called a DMV and a building that is dedicated to inspecting the cars in which we drive.  This is a privilege that we are quite apt to take advantage of (or even despise?), yet in many parts of the world (parts that I spend time in), there is no such thing.  Consequently, the roads are less safe and the cars emitting all sorts of fumes that would never get passed inspection.

Of course, the DMV is just one privilege we enjoy living where we do.  And I would argue that many of these privileges (and the organization behind them) flow from gospel light.  Not that they are gospel light, but they are blessings that come as the gospel brings life into its rightful order.  

Enough for now…at least to get back on track.  

Seeking Him with you,

Joe

Stephen Altrogge has a cool contest going at his blog: pick what you think is the greatest sports moment, and send Stephen a video clip of it from youtube.  Stephen will pick the ten best moments, and those who selected those moments will receive a free copy of his forthcoming book, Game Day to the Glory of God.

Any guesses on which moment I sent in?  (Hint: I’ve posted on the Seeking Him blog before)

Larry

PS — I HATE Duke (can a Christian say that?), but even a Duke hater has to admit that this shot was one of the great moments in NCAA hoops history.  No, that’s not the one I sent to Stephen!

While I was at the Worship God ‘08 conference last week I bought Come Weary Saints, one of Sovereign Grace’s newest CD’s. I am really enjoying it, and particularly enjoy this song written by Mark Altrogge, called As Long as You are Glorified:

Shall I take from Your hand Your blessings
Yet not welcome any pain
Shall I thank You for days of sunshine
Yet grumble in days of rain
Shall I love You in times of plenty
Then leave You in days of drought
Shall I trust when I reap a harvest
But when winter winds blow, then doubt

Refrain:

Oh let Your will be done in me
In Your love I will abide
Oh I long for nothing else as long
As You are glorified

Are You good only when I prosper
And true only when I’m filled
Are You King only when I’m carefree
And God only when I’m well
You are good when I’m poor and needy
You are true when I’m parched and dry
You still reign in the deepest valley
You’re still God in the darkest night

What a wonderful expression of love for and trust in God’s good purposes in all things. Every time I listen to it, I find myself praying that God would make my heart really embrace what I am confessing.

You can listen to an audio clip of the song here.

Longing (and longing to long) for His will to be done in me,

Larry

In Respectable Sins, Jerry Bridges attempts to expose the subtle sins that we often justify in ourselves, even while we lament how godless and immoral the culture is around us. Among the sins that Christians often tolerate, Bridges takes a closer look at anxiety, jealousy, pride, ingratitude, judgmentalism and anger, to name a few. Before examining the ‘respectable’ sins, Bridges spends six chapters of the book giving general instructions on sin and the power of the gospel to destroy both the penalty and the power of sin.

I could go on and on writing about what a valuable resource this book is. So I will confine myself to sharing with you four reasons I found this book so helpful:

It is Gospel-Saturated – In chapter after chapter, Bridges explains that the remedy to the respectable sins is not through exercising greater will-power, but through the power of the gospel. It is only when we know that Christ has died to free us from the wages of our sin, that we can truly find the freedom and joy we need to put these persistent sins to death.

It is full of Scripture to empower you to fight these sins – Sin is appealing because it promises us satisfaction, and the only way to fight its deceitful promises is with a superior satisfaction in God. By filling his book with promises from God’s Word revealing the nature and character of the God we worship, Bridges gives us just what we need to make war on sin.

It beautifully mingles toughness and tenderness – Bridges is not shy about calling sin what it is: ugly, treasonous, and a stench in the nostrils of a holy God. He writes many things that pierced my heart as I saw just how serious my sin is. Yet Bridges does not write like a man who has conquered sin, but as one who is fighting with us. This book is humbly written by a man who has looked deeply at his own heart.

It encourages people to fight sin in community – In just about every chapter, Bridges urges the reader to speak with a spouse or close friend(s) for help in identifying and being held accountable for the sins we are struggling with. As the writer of Hebrews said, “Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.“ Fighting sin is a community project, and Bridges repeatedly encourages the reader to elicit the help of other Christians as we fight sin.

I am confident that any Christian will profit immensely from reading and applying the contents of this book. May we be known as a people who make war on sin, even the ‘respectable’ ones.

As you know, last week my daughter Halle had her first birthday, and it was a time for us to recall the Lord’s abundant mercies over the past year. I have learned a lot about the Lord and myself during this year, and am grateful for these lessons. One of them that I’ve been pondering especially over the past couple of days is how my experience with Halle has helped me to understand that foreknowledge does not quench a deep, intimate love relationship.

Maybe that sounds pretty abstract; what kind of lesson is that to be learning from parenthood? Well, along with being a dad in the last year, I also have become a pastor full-time. And one of the things I am responsible for as a shepherd is to protect the flock from false doctrines.

One of the doctrines that has been infiltrating the contemporary church is the idea of open theism. Essentially open theism is a philosophy of God’s knowledge which says that God cannot and does not know the future choices of human beings. One of the common reasons why open theists insist that this must be so is that in order to have an authentic, dynamic relationship of love with His people, God cannot know everything that we are going to do in the future. If He did, then we would be mere robots, and we could not really experience the thrill of a relationship with Him.

For example, in Matthew 8 Jesus is amazed at the faith of a centurion. If God knew how this centurion would react from all eternity, He could not really be amazed at his expression of faith. Therefore, God does not know the future exhaustively. It is more complicated than that, but I am trying to keep this post relatively short!

Anyway, in interacting with Halle this year, I am seeing the shallowness of such an argument. Though I do not really have foreknowledge, to a certain extent it feels like I do. What I mean is, since the day Halle was born I ‘knew’ that the time would come when she would roll over, crawl, stand on her own, walk, etc. Of course you could say I did not know it for certain, because maybe she would be handicapped in some way. But for all intents and purposes, I think you’d agree that once a healthy baby is born, the fact that she will one day stand on her own is pretty certain.

Nevertheless, when Halle began standing on her own a week or two ago, I was thrilled. There is genuine delight and excitement in watching her do something which I have been pretty certain of happening for the last twelve months. Apparently when it comes to loving my daughter, foreknowledge is not a hindrance to genuine love and excitement. And if that is so for me with my daughter, why should it not be so for God?

For some time I have known that the Bible contradicts open theism. My precious daughter has taught me that human experience contradicts it too.

Larry

Larry

The other day I posted a challenging objection to the existence of God from Christopher Hitchens in a debate with Dinesh D’Souza.  Yesterday you wrote that you hoped to interact with that one a bit later in the week, but if our past track record is any indication, that’s not likely to happen.

So here is how D’Souza responds to the objection (his response is immediately after the quote from Hitchens that I posted the other day).  It is a great response!

Larry

Great post yesterday. I would like to interact a bit more with that post and look forward to you doing the same. For now, however, I wanted to offer two short articles/posts concerning our present-day technological inputs and there effects.

The first article might overstate the case a bit, but there are some good insights inside.

The second cites the first and gives 5 practical steps one family has implemented to resist the tide of input overload. I found this second one particularly helpful.

This is an area that I have found to be increasingly difficult. After all, we have so many channels through which we might read and learn and study, etc. It takes discipline to learn how to manage these inputs (email included!), so that we might redeem the time to the glory of God.

Pursuing faithfulness with you,
Joe

In a debate with Dinesh D’Souza, well known atheist Christopher Hitchens posed a question about God’s existence that went something like this:

Homo sapiens has been on the planet for a long time, let’s say 100,000 years. Apparently for 95,000 years God sat idly by, watching and perhaps enjoying man’s horrible condition. After all, cave-man’s plight was a miserable one: infant mortality, brutal massacres, horrible toothaches, and an early death. Evidently God didn’t really care.

Then, a few thousand years ago, God said, “It’s time to get involved.” Even so God did not intervene in one of the civilized parts of the world. He didn’t bother with China or Egypt or India. Rather, he decided to get his message to a group of nomadic people in the middle of nowhere. It took another thousand years or more for this message to get to places like India and China.

Here is the thrust of Hitchens’ point: God seems to have been napping for 98 percent of human history, finally getting his act together only for the most recent 2 percent? What kind of a bizarre God acts like this?

So, Christian apologists: how do we answer such an objection to belief in our great and glorious God?

Striving to always be prepared to give a reason for my hope in Christ to anyone who asks (1 Peter 3:15),

Larry